Something Cool We Saw On TV: Oh, M.I.A.

The sight of Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. side by side, pom-poms in hand is one thing; M.I.A. so briefly, so slyly raising up her middle finger to the camera is something we might cherish forever. She shimmied convincingly, better than we'd ever imagined (we're more used to her making the two-finger gun than powering down yardage with pom-poms), so during the halftime show, we were torn between amusement and confusion. This is M.I.A., she whose name brings to mind the sound of change and gunshots. And she who rapped alongside Jay-Z and Kanye onstage nine-months pregnant, as the most swaggery pregnant woman there might ever exist. And now she's on stage with Madonna, rah-rah-ing. And then she slipped us that beautiful middle finger and everything in the world was right again. It was so brief, so quick, a wink — and exactly what we needed during a show where the only competition for our attention was that tight-rope performer.